Review: FX’s ‘Justified’ returns for season 2

A hero is often only as interesting as his villains, and gunslinging “Justified” hero Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) has been fortunate – for his audience’s sake, if not for his own – to be given such a memorable rogues gallery.

In the FX drama’s first season, Raylan – a US Marshal with a strict moral code and an abnormally high kill rate – was forced to return to the part of Kentucky in which he had grown up, and was pitted against his slippery old pal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), Boyd’s crimelord father Bo (MC Gainey) and even Raylan’s own ruthless dad Arlo (Raymond J. Barry). It was a great collection of bad guys: all tied to the past Raylan has spent a lifetime trying to escape, all well-drawn, all impeccably cast. (Goggins was so indelible that he was given a reprieve when Raylan was supposed to kill Boyd at the end of the pilot.)

Raylan’s season one opponents were so colorful and emotionally resonant that I worried season two (it debuts tonight at 10) – in which Bo is dead, Arlo is under house arrest and Boyd isn’t trying to cause any obvious trouble – would be an inevitable let-down. But darn it if “Justified” showrunner Graham Yost and company haven’t found a way to equal – if not top – that bunch, while at the same time building on the lessons they learned in the first season.

Our big bad this time around is legendary pot farmer Mags Bennett, played by Hey It’s That Girl character actress Margo Martindale. (You might know her as Dexter Morgan’s pal from the records room, or the neighbor on “The Riches,” or Hilary Swank’s mom in “Million Dollar Baby,” or…) Though Martindale’s characters aren’t always sweetness and light, she’s not the first – or 50th – actor you’d think to pit against Raylan Givens, but it’s an inspired choice, and a great character. Mags acts the part of the humble, friendly backwoods gal who just happens to grow a little pot, but she’s really a cold, calculating businesswoman who won’t hesitate to order one of her three sons – including Jeremy Davies from “Lost” as Dickie, the crazy one – from putting a hurt (or worse) on someone acting against her interests.

Because Mags isn’t as overt in her evil, and because she knows Raylan from childhood, he has to step more cautiously around her than usual, but that works well for the story. As much fun as it is to see Raylan slap leather and gun down a bad guy, Olyphant and the writers have made him a very smart man as well as a lethal one. As with all heroes based on Elmore Leonard books, some of Raylan’s most compelling moments involve him just thinking about the latest mess he’s been handed.

And the early stages of season two feel thankfully messier than the comparable portion of season one. After a terrific pilot episode, “Justified” stumbled a bit with too many disposable, standalone episodes in which Raylan dealt with bad guys totally unrelated to the season’s main plot. Some of those episodes were quite good, but overall there was a sense of marking time until the story arcs kicked in, and the season’s second half was unsurprisingly much stronger than its first.

Yost has acknowledged that mistake, and while the three new episodes I’ve seen all have some kind of standalone plotline, those stories are always surrounded by ongoing problems for Raylan. The Bennetts are prominent each week, Raylan has to deal with his rekindled feelings for ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea, much better-used than last year), make sure Arlo’s not finding ways to cause trouble from inside his house, etc.

And then there’s Boyd. I don’t want to give away too much about his storyline, but the character remains ever a chameleon – this year, Goggins somehow finds a way to make his body seem much smaller, and his accent becomes even more pronounced – which means that no one trusts him. He insists he’s done with crime, yet as Raylan puts it, “The more you say it, the less I believe it.”

There’s always the danger in a TV villain becoming so popular that the writers keep him around past all good narrative sense. (To pick out a very different kind of show, there were several seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” in which wicked vampire Spike was allowed to hang around for no good reason except that the fans and writers all loved actor James Marsters’ performance.) Boyd’s not there yet, thankfully, and his quest to better himself in spite of everyone’s skepticism neatly parallels what’s going on with Raylan.

(In case you missed it, I recently interviewed Goggins about this show and “The Shield,” and I think it’s a very good read. Smart, articulate, fascinating guy.)

Last year, Raylan racked up a high body count, and while that’s a fundamental part of the show, the writers are always conscious to make him pragmatic rather than trigger-happy. So when he faces off against a particularly unsavory bad guy in the season premiere, he explains that though his first impulse is to just shoot him, “I am doing my level best to avoid the paperwork and the self-recrimination that comes with it.”

Raylan’s mix of steely confidence and self-aware humor fits Olyphant like a glove – it’s actually an even better role for him than Seth Bullock on “Deadwood” – and it’s just as much fun to see him out-talk the bad guy as it is to out-draw him.

And when the bad guy’s as well-written and performed as Raylan himself, so much the better.

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How lost would I be if I started watching the show tonight? (Longtime reader, thanks for all the work you’ve done over the years!)

By: Jonnybon

02.09.2011 @ 6:24 PM

Catch up first. The first season is great.

By: SC

02.09.2011 @ 7:16 PM

If you’ve read this review, you’ll be fine! The first season is unquestionably worth watching, but you can probably dive right in! And it’s wonderful!

By: Blake

02.09.2011 @ 10:19 PM

Raylan is a US Marshall who got himself sent to the backwoods by shooting a guy in the series pilot. We’re not sure how much support he has from his superiors; that story hasn’t been much explored.

He had a fling in the first season with two women: one who shot her long-abusive husband, and his ex-wife. Both are around and that triangle figures to play out in season 2.

Boyd is the toughest character to get a handle on: he was a really bad guy, then claimed he got religion. Not much to add to what Alan wrote.

There’s no overarching government-conspiracy plot or anything like that.

I think that’s all you need. Season 1 was good, not great, but got better as it went along. If you like season 2, you can go back and watch season 1 on DVD. That’s what I’ve done with “Chuck,” in which the mythology was much more important. Even though I started that one off cold in season 3, I don’t regret it.

By: Dryden

02.09.2011 @ 6:21 PM

I’m very excited for this season. It sounds like Yost is aware of what didn’t fully work in the first season and has tried to correct them (arcs vs standalones, Raylan’s ex). I think it’s going to be great.

As a Buffy fanboy, I must argue that Spike did serve a functional purpose after S2 as an outsider to the Scooby Gang and metaphorical “other” contrasted with Buffy’s journey.

By: sepinwall

02.09.2011 @ 6:23 PM

He may have served a useful thematic purpose, but in terms of actual plot and characterization, there were many, many episodes where it made absolutely no sense that Buffy hadn’t staked him yet.

By: Dryden

02.09.2011 @ 8:40 PM

In terms of actual plot and characterization, Buffy considered him harmless to the everyday residents of Sunnydale and a useful resource (knowledge of demons, strength to protect Dawn). And in later seasons, he takes on Angel’s role as Buffy’s jump-starter. Though on BtVS, these kinds of practical considerations always took a backseat to the emotional appeal.

By: Blake

02.09.2011 @ 10:22 PM

Angel and Spike were the kind of douchebag vampires that inspire Twilight. I never liked Angel, and hated Spike when he got his soul back and essentially became Angel. But Joss Whedon was ahead of his time in recognizing that there’s a huge market for douchebag vampires.

By: Anonymous

02.10.2011 @ 6:31 AM

Once again, Sepinwall blows it with the James Marsters crack. You want the definitive example. Try half of the cast of WEEDS beyond season 3.

By: Matt C

02.09.2011 @ 6:30 PM

Really, Alan, you had a problem with Spike in Buffy from season 4 on?

You might be the ONLY person who has a problem with that.

By: Matt C

02.09.2011 @ 6:33 PM

And as far as Spike’s usefulness to the overall story and theme of Buffy, Spike represented how no matter how bad or wrong or whatever a person is, they can change throw their own conscious choices, and change for the better.

Unlike Angel, Spike didn’t have a soul thrust upon him as a curse and a burden to bear, Spike went out and SOUGHT a soul, because he couldn’t live with himself for what he did to Buffy, and because he wanted to be a man (demon) worthy of love.

Come on man, Spike fits in his own way, and he fits perfectly.

By: Matt C

02.09.2011 @ 6:34 PM

*through, not throw. Stupid auto-correct.

By: Anonymous

02.10.2011 @ 4:45 PM

Alan is *definitely* not the only person who has a problem with that. It’s what derailed the show for me. It’s a large part of why I don’t own season six or seven on DVD.

Spike was a bad, bad dude and for at least a season, the writers were trying to have it both ways, making him dangerous and yet having the gang treat him as essentially harmless.

And for those who found the Angel/Buffy relationship a little too emo, the Buffy/Spike relationship was pure torture.

By: GMan

02.09.2011 @ 6:40 PM

Uh oh, this comment section may go off the rails quickly concerning “Buffy”…

I’m burning through “Deadwood” seasons again, and I do agree that, as much as I enjoy Seth Bullock, Olyphant’s Raylan Givens has a much more enjoyable range of emotions and humor. Guy can be straight up funny at times.

Mo Ryan published and interview with Graham Yost, and from that I gathered that Yost wanted this show to be akin to the USA style show, while FX wanted it to hone to its more gritty elements. One of the few times I agreed with network notes.

I think in last year’s first episode, Givens was like a modern-day Seth Bullock. But as the show has gone on, Givens has evolved into a unique character. You can really see that in the season two openner

By: Zach L

02.09.2011 @ 6:59 PM

Looking forward to the show very much, loved season 1 and can’t wait to see how this one plays out.

Just realized this, for me and the ten other people who saw the movie, but now that Margo is on the show, both of Dewey Cox’s parents have prominent roles on Justified, with Dewey’s father playing Arlo. This is gonna be even harder for me now, since everytime Arlo comes on the screen, I keep thinking “The Wrong Kid Died!”

By: Joseph

02.09.2011 @ 7:10 PM

I was already counting the minutes to tonight’s premiere before I knew Davies was a part of this season! Can’t wait. The promos for season 2 (I am thinking specifically of the Star Wars and Dirty Harry ones) were better than most of what is on TV.

By: MTW

02.09.2011 @ 7:21 PM

Alan’s interview followed hard on the heels of Goggin’s interview with NPR’s “Fresh Air.” The cumulative effect was bracing. Goggins reminds me of Andre Braugher. Both are smart, articulate men who can describe in minute detail what they are doing and thinking in order to create a character, but damned if you can see the technique in the performance.

By: Anonymous

02.09.2011 @ 7:58 PM

Much like either you or Fienberg said on Twitter a while back, I didn’t realize how much I missed this show until it started airing promos, and then even more when I started showing the missus the first season. Color me pumped.

By: ed w

02.09.2011 @ 9:04 PM

This posting will assume anyone reading it has seen season 1.

I don’t mind them keeping Boyd around but I do mind them having him recover ridiculously fast from certain things. By the end of the short season 1 he showed no sign that he’d been shot in the chest at point blank range just months ago, and also in the finale he gets a severe beating to his head and face and not only gets over it quickly but shows no disfigurement or scars from it worth noting. He may have had a scratch or two but certainly nothing noteworthy and he wasn’t that dazed or in pain either.

Look if they want to keep him around for narrative reasons fine, but show some semblance of realism regarding his injuries.

Despite all that I enjoyed season 1 (though I kind of thought they rushed through too much story in the pilot) and very much look forward to season 2 and the Alan articles that will come with it.

By: Truck

02.09.2011 @ 11:48 PM

I’ve been on an Elmore Leonard kick for the past few months, and damn near every story I wish Timothy Olyphant was playing the lead in a TV show based on it. He can handle that weird dialogue exceptionally well.

By: alamble

02.10.2011 @ 2:17 AM

Glad to hear we’ll be seeing more of Tim and Rachel, but who I am *really* hoping to see again is AUSA David Vasquez, as essayed by the awesome Rick Gomez.

By: debbie

02.10.2011 @ 4:04 AM

Glad this show is back!

I was totally freaked out by Jeremy Davies in this creepy role, so different from Daniel Faraday….

The young actress who plays Loretta is a terrific actress.

What a great “big bad” Mags is going to be! Terrifing!

Not enough Boyd!

By: Col Bat Guano

02.10.2011 @ 7:11 AM

“The young actress who plays Loretta is a terrific actress.”

I’m glad to see Escapade finally got her break.

By: steph

02.22.2011 @ 5:58 AM

thank you!!! that’s who she is

By: M.A.Peel

02.10.2011 @ 4:22 AM

I liked the glimpse of what cartel guy in Miami Reyes was watching on tv. It was some movie from 1930s. I think it was Holiday, a scene with Lew Ayres & Katharine Hepburn “You have twice the beauty and 10x the brains” [explaining why Cary Grant should love Hepburn instead of her sister who he’s engaged to]